Alice
by attu
Summary: A little peek into what happens when a new ghost is created, particularly in as interesting a place as Amity Park. Written for Day 1 of Phanniemay '16: Origins.


**Alice**

 _Written for Phanniemay '16, Day 1: Origins_

* * *

She came to gasping, air rattling through her windpipe and scraping against her already-raw vocal cords. She tried to speak, but sounds coming out of her throat could hardly be construed as speech and this made her breath faster, hyperventilating because the air wasn't reaching her lungs no matter how hard she tried and everything was too loud and too quiet, too hot and too cold. Her vision was going foggy and surely her entire chest had collapsed or was collapsing and how could this be happening to her? It made no sense and everything hurt and –

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, shh, shh. It's alright, you're fine, it's over now," a light baritone sounded from behind her, a cool hands settling on her shoulders.

"Can't- can't breathe," she choked out, or tried to. What crawled out of her throat still didn't sound like words (too jagged, too much like screams) but the stranger seemed to understand.

"Okay, I'm really sorry and this is probably going to be even worse of a shock than how you're feeling right now but you're going to have to trust me," said the voice, hands moving on her shoulders as the source of the voice moved around her to kneel face-to-face. She couldn't help but stare at the stranger before her, whose shock of white hair (stuck out in all directions as if he had been struck by lightning) fell into a pair of startlingly green eyes.

Pushing several strands impatiently away from his forehead, he repeated, "Do you trust me?" She jerked her head in what felt like the right direction. "Alright, I'm so sorry but I need you to stop breathing." His voice cracked slightly on the word "stop."

"W-what?" She wheezed. "But I-I need t-to-"

"No, you don't. Not anymore."

" _What do you mean not any_ \- oh." She hadn't realized that she'd stopped trying to breathe soon after he'd started talking. Her hands crept up to her chest, fingers splayed over where she thought her lungs to be.

She saw herself reflected in his eyes as he spoke again, those eyes immeasurably sad. "You were trying to force air into organs that don't exist anymore. Your consciousness was overriding your instincts and your body was getting confused trying to carry out instructions that don't make sense to it."

He wasn't making any sense. How could he? He spoke again before she could. "What's your name?"

"Alice."

"Alice. That's a nice name. Alice," he repeated, as if trying to commit it to memory. "I'm Danny," he said, holding out a gloved hand.

She shook it, slowly, unsure as to what was going on. Now that she could think straight, her mind was buzzing with questions and his cryptic explanations weren't helping. "Nice to meet you, but what did you mean about my organs?"

He let go of her hand. "You don't have organs, because- _gahh_." He stopped, running his hands through his hair anxiously. "Why haven't I gotten any better at this?"

Alice blinked. She briefly considered answering but after a moment's thought decided against it. He was definitely talking to himself. And she definitely wasn't thinking about the fact that she wasn't breathing.

Danny untangled his hands from his hair to take both of hers, breathing out slowly. "Alice, you don't have organs because you're a ghost. You're dead."

The boy came back some time later. After the way she'd screamed at him earlier, she was surprised he did. She didn't remember seeing him come in to what looked to her like an abandoned gardening shed, so when coughed quietly she started.

"Sorry, I thought you'd seen me coming. I guess I went invisible again. Scare my friends all the time," he chuckled nervously.

She lifted her head and looked him right in the eyes. "I have some questions," she said.

"Makes sense that you would. Shoot."

"How am I a ghost? I don't look like a ghost. I've seen them flying around and- and-"

"Destroying things? Hurting people? Yeah," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "Here in Amity Park, things work a little differently. The high concentration of ecto-energy makes it a lot more likely that a person'll become a ghost when they die, particularly if they have some unfinished business."

"But I didn't die! I think I'd remember if I did."

"That says otherwise," he gestured at her chest. She looked down and swore. Her abdomen was a grotesque shredded mess, intestines peeking out of a bloody hole the size of a softball.

" _HolyshithowdidInotknowthatwasthere_."

"You've forgotten already. You probably can't remember how you died, either. Death trauma's pretty huge and you feel pain differently because you don't have nerves and... Sorry, I'm rambling. It'll start to disappear as you forget more and more."

"Forget?! Will I forget my family? I can't forget my little… my little…" She broke off. Little what?

"Alice, look at me. Little what? Little sister? Little brother? You gotta remember," he said, determined.

"Little… brother," she decided. "I have. Had. A little brother."

"What's his name? Can you remember his name?"

"I think it started with a J."

"Umm, James, Jared, Jehoshaphat..." He rattled off.

"Jehoshaphat? Really?"

"What? It's in the Bible. I think. Jeremy, Joey-"

"Joey! That's it. My little brother's name is Joey," she said excitedly.

"Good. Hold on to that for as long as you can, 'kay? It's really important that you remember Joey."

"Why would I forget him? How could I?"

"Because, Alice, that's what happens to ghosts. That's how they become like Ember and Skulker and Technus. They lose track of who they were and their existence boils down to one thing, their obsession. So with Ember, you get the rock star persona and her thing about her name. Skulker hunts. Technus is crazy about tech. That is what will happen to you, in time. If you can hold on to who you were, remember Joey, then maybe you can stay yourself for a little while longer."

She thought about this for a time, fingering a small gold cross around her neck. "What about passing on?"

"Passing on?"

"Heaven? Hell? Isn't that what's supposed to happen to people when they die?"

"To be honest, I have no idea. Maybe Amity Park's different. Maybe the Ghost Zone is Purgatory. Maybe the ghosts here don't want to or aren't able to pass on." He added, quietly, "And I'm not sure what that means about _me_."

"What about you?"

"Oh, nothing. A chat for another time." He paused, seeing her fingers wrapped around her crucifix. His eyes softened and he smiled. "Maybe you'll be able to pass on. Just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it can't happen, right?"

She returned his smile with one of her own. "Right."

Something in the boy's belt beeped. "Shit," he swore, taking a small device out of his belt and tapping at it for a few seconds. "I'm terribly sorry but I've got to go." Seeing the panicked look on her face, he added, "I'll be back later. Promise."

She nodded and he got to his feet, dusting off his knees. "Danny?"

He turned back toward her. "What is it?"

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me. If I can help you even a little, that's thanks enough."

In the span of one blink of Alice's eyes to the next, he was gone.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Amity Park's a pretty unique place, right? There's gotta be something weird going on after death there. This was mostly me riffing off an idea I had. Comments and critiques appreciated (:

Okay, now I've gotta do a bit of work to get the next things out. See y'all when I get my ass in gear!

-attu


End file.
